It is known to place an antenna on a vehicle such as a boat or recreational vehicle (RV) for receiving signals from a satellite, for example, a direct television signal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,205 issued to van Heyningen, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,250 issued to Sherwood, et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,804 issued to Rodeffer teach various apparatus and methods for mounting and positioning such antennas. Each of these patents is incorporated by reference herein.
Prior art devices for positioning antenna are typically driven by electric motors connected to the antenna by a gear mechanism. To reduce the size and cost of the drive motors, high ratio gear trains are often employed. However, such gearing systems create excessive slop in the drive train, thereby limiting the precision with which the antenna can be positioned. Furthermore, prior art devices are often limited in the amount of rotation that can be provided in the azimuth direction. For applications on boats and RV's an unlimited amount of rotation is desirable.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a device for positioning an antenna that has small size, low cost, high accuracy of position, and an unlimited range of movement in the azimuth direction.